Hatch Considers A Run For Gop Nomination ‘Moral Resurgence’ Necessary, Conservative Senator Says

Utah Sen. Orrin G. Hatch said Tuesday he plans to seek the Republican presidential nomination next year, describing his bid as a long shot but saying the country is in need of a “moral resurgence.”

Hatch, a conservative who is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, said he is forming an exploratory committee to raise money and to sound out support.

“I am planning on running,” said Hatch, who has not yet made a formal official declaration of his candidacy but who let his intentions be known to congressional staff members last week.

“A lot of things are left undone,” he told reporters. “There’s no question we need a moral resurgence.”

Hatch, a senator since 1977 who is up for re-election in Utah next year, conceded he was entering the crowded field of Republican presidential aspirants rather late.

“It will be very much of a long shot,” said Hatch, adding he believes there is a need for a conservative Republican at the helm of the country.

“I think our country’s headed for some very difficult times,” he said.

Hatch said it would take “leadership and guts” to keep the Social Security system solvent.

He would tackle affirmative action. “I find that quotas are divisive because they pit one group against another.”

He would “reduce the tax code from thousands of pages to a few hundred.”

Hatch, 65, is a former Mormon bishop, father of six and song writer who recorded love songs to his wife, Elaine Hansen.

On a day when Republican senators and House members met in the Capitol with the party’s early front-runner, Texas Gov. George W. Bush, Hatch complained that other candidates haven’t addressed the issues.

But he called Bush “an excellent candidate. … Right now it’s his to lose,” Hatch said. “He’ll find me a friend not an enemy.”